Ah. The jewel in the box that is the Greek Islands. What can
you say about a place that has had so much said about it? We’ve all seen the
pictures. White walled, blue roof houses reflecting the sun as it sinks behind
the islands and dips into the Mediterranean. Too be honest though, the pictures
will never do it justice. To see this place in the flesh is something else.
Sitting atop a volcano watching the sunset bounce off those blue roofed houses
is to be at peace.
Speaking of the volcano, did you know that the entire ring
of islands that is Santorini is actually an ancient volcano? The whole lot. The
caldera is the ring of the volcano and that is now made up of the small
islands. The whole thing sinks 800m to the ocean floor. That is one big mumma.
Puts you to shame Iceland.
During our time on Santorini a team meeting was held to
decide on one fact; yes, we will ride donkeys. This was not a long process by
the way. Therefore after jumping on a one day boat excursion that visited some
of the other islands, it was decided that come the island of Thirrassa we would
ride donkeys goddamm it! Someone call me Simpson! Heading into the donkey
shelter the handler carefully selected our sturdy steads. Mum and Dad were
given two rather dashing white horse-like donkey’s, Emma was led to George, a
stout battle hardened veteran, and I was led to Darryl. What can one say about
Darryl? He was a donkey that was definite. He was roughly the size of big
Labrador and his knees were shaking. I wasn’t even on him yet. Looking into his
eyes I saw fear and perhaps relief that would be his last trip up the hill,
mainly because I would be burying him halfway up. Nonetheless I climbed aboard
old mate Darryl and began the journey. With George leading the brigade, Darryl
taking second in command and an absolutely terrified American woman coming in
hot at third we left Mum and Dad to eat our dust. Not really we were all
connected by a rope. As donkeys go up hills you get a wonderful view into the working
of their stomachs. This becomes really exciting when they have explosive
gastro, as Mum discovered. At one stage up the hill we were all exposed to the
clench and relax of the donkey in front, but poor Mum copped the one donkey who
had a dodgy vindaloo the night before. Lucky she was wearing shoes. That’s all
I can say.
After a huge amount of laughs, wine and sunsets it was time
to say goodbye to Mum and Dad (we had already held the memorial for Daryl).
This was quite sad as I don’t know when we will see these two incredible people
again. All I can say is thank Christ for Skype. Thanks for the memories and the
laughs Mum and Dad, we had the best time travelling with you and hopefully you
can convince Dad to come over again next year!!
